Respiration hastens maturation and lowers yield in rice

Role of respiration in plant growth remains an enigma. Growth of meristematic cells, which are not photosynthetic, is entirely driven by endogenous respiration. Does respiration determine growth and size or does it merely burn off the carbon depleting the biomass? We show here that respiration of the germinating rice seed, which is contributed largely by the meristematic cells of the embryo, quantitatively correlates with the dynamics of much of plant growth, starting with the time for germination to the time for flowering and yield. Seed respiration appears to define the quantitative phenotype that contributes to yield via growth dynamics that could be discerned even in commercial varieties, which are biased towards higher yield, despite considerable susceptibility of the dynamics to environmental perturbations. Intrinsic variation, irreducible despite stringent growth conditions, required independent validation of relevant physiological variables both by critical sampling design and by constructing dendrograms for the interrelationships between variables that yield high consensus. More importantly, seed respiration, by mediating the generation clock time via variable time for maturation as seen in rice, directly offers the plausible basis for the phenotypic variation, a major ecological stratagem in a variable environment with uncertain water availability. Faster respiring rice plants appear to complete growth dynamics sooner, mature faster, resulting in a smaller plant with lower yield. Counter to the common allometric views, respiration appears to determine size in the rice plant, and offers a valid physiological means, within the limits of intrinsic variation, to help parental selection in breeding.